It seems like a perfect match--Harvard law students in need of real life experience paired with clients who need real world help.

For the last 20 years, Harvard Law School's (HLS) Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center has been the successful matchmaker.

Every year, about 150 students under the supervision of Boston attorneys and HLS professors provide over 2,000 clients with legal aid and representation. The center's clients, usually earning low incomes, often wouldn't be able to afford such representation on their own.

The center covers topics from family law to estate management. It's the largest legal teaching clinic in the country.

But a recent court ruling in Louisiana might put the future of the clinic-and all of its clients-in jeopardy.

After students from a similar law clinic at Tulane Law School in New Orleans went to court to prevent a factory being moved into a low-income area, business interests successfully lobbied for more restrictions on student law groups.

And while these restrictions are not likely to be copied in Massachusetts anytime soon, staff at the HLS clinic say the Louisiana ruling threatens one of the most valuable parts of a legal education: hands-on experience.

"The backbone of becoming a lawyer is, of course, the law school education," says M. Jeanne Charn, director of the Hale and Dorr Center. "But the real world is different than a classroom, and students should be prepared for that."

It all started in 1971 when Charn was hired by the Ford Foundation to build a clinical education program at Harvard, with the help of a grant from the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility, a Ford Foundation subsidiary.

"There was an agenda in the early 1970s," says Charn, a lecturer on law at HLS. "People were concerned about the lack of mentorship and real world experience in law school. So the Ford Foundation sponsored the first wave of these clinics, to inculcate responsibility in law students."

According to Charn, the foundation's goals in establishing this pro bono center weren't always uncommon--in fact, law school itself was once seen as an addition to experience received on the job.

"In the early part of this century, law school was considered a supplement to real life experience," Charn says. "We're trying to bring them both together."

The Hale and Dorr center--named for the prominent Boston law firm which funded its building-is the most extensive branch of HLS' clinical program. About 60 percent of HLS students will participate in the clinical program at some time during their education.

The program includes, in addition to the Hale and Dorr center, five student practice organizations and three specialized placement agencies. While all offer real world experience in particular fields, the Hale and Dorr center is by far the largest, dealing with more than five times more cases that the next largest program.

Students working in this program say they are eager to practice real cases with the support of professionals.

"It is the most meaningful, challenging, exciting part of my law school experience," says Sophie E. Bryan, a second-year student who works in the center's Family Law Unit.

Bryan is taking a "Lawyering Process" course offered for HLS credit by the clinic, in addition to spending 15 to 20 hours a week working on cases dealing with issues from divorce to paternity.

"I've appeared in court several times over the course of this year and have met a wonderful group of clients," says Bryan, who has been involved with the center since September.

The Hale and Dorr center is one of a growing group of law school clinical education groups in this country. Programs such as the Tulane University Environmental Law Clinic have gained national recognition for their success in the courtroom.

The Tulane Clinic, which has operated since January 1989, has represented low-income community organizations fighting neighborhood pollution in over 200 cases.

In 1997, the Tulane law students successfully represented a low-income organization, the St. James Parish Citizens for Jobs and the Environment, against a company called Shintech, Inc., which proposed to build a plant in their poor rural neighborhood.

Residents claimed the plant might have caused severe air pollution and explosions.

In June 1998, shortly after the students won the case, the state Supreme Court restricted the student practice rule of Louisiana, sharply curtailing the activities of organizations like the Tulane clinic.

According to Student Lawyer magazine, this ruling came at the urging of the New Orleans Business Council, the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry--all powerful business interests that were concerned by the success of the Tulane law students.

"I pray that no other court will be as politically manipulated as the Louisiana court was in this decision," Clinic Director Robert R. Kuehn says. The clinic, with the support of more than a dozen civil rights organizations, is appealing the ruling.

This decision has left many HLS students worried about the future of their own clinical education options.

"I would be heart-broken if the Center was forced to close," Bryan says.

As attorneys and law schools through the country react to the Louisiana decision with anger and concern, HLS students are also concerned about business interests affecting their profession.

"The "problem" was not that student representation was insufficient but rather that it was too good," says Rafael H. Mares, a third-year law student who has been involved with clinical practice work since 1997.

Charn says she is concerned about the Louisiana law, but not about its affect on the Hale and Dorr Clinic.

"I would be very surprised to see a Massachusetts court rule against a successful lawsuit," Charn says.

Charn says the clinic is also very careful about the cases it accepts. Unlike the Tulane clinic, Hale and Dorr tries to avoid high-profile cases.

"The best way for students to get clinical education is to avoid tackling controversial cases," Charn says.

Still, Charn does not ignore the powerful message the Louisiana ruling has sent out to law school clinics nationwide.

"When someone is slapped down for being successful, it's always a concern," Charn says. "But the real world is different, and sometimes people break the rules."