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Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee

The district court did not abuse its discretion by dismissing the suit under the Pullman doctrine so that the state courts could resolve whether Texas law actually prohibits an insurer from employing staff attorneys on behalf of its insureds.

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Appeal from the United States District Court For the Northern District of Texas

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (“Nationwide”) sued Texas’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee (the “UPLC”) in federal district court. Nationwide sought a declaration that Texas law does not prohibit it from employing salaried staff attorneys to represent its insureds in policy-related cases. Nationwide also sought a declaration that the Texas State Bar Act, as interpreted by the UPLC, violates the federal constitution. Because it found the State Bar Act’s unauthorized practice of law provisions to be sufficiently unclear, the district court abstained from exercising its jurisdiction under the Pullman*fn1 doctrine. Nationwide has appealed and requests that we certify the state law issue to the Supreme Court of Texas. We affirm the district court’s abstention ruling but remand with instructions to dismiss without prejudice. We also deny Nationwide’s motion to certify a question to the Supreme Court of Texas.

I. Facts and Procedural History

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