My post on 10.19 lays it out pretty clearly. 

We have a difference in terminology. A Title Insurance Underwriter is a company that is listed on the policy, standing behind the agent or directly issuing the policy to the insured. So that would be First American, Fidelity, Old Republic, etc. 

Those companies have "underwriters" on staff, typically attorney's.

A title AGENT may have staff that examines the title as well. I call those people title examiners or title officers. The title insurance underwriting company is usually the one to set the standards for scope of search and any acceptable shortcuts that can be taken during the search and abstract process that will not negatively impact the integrity of the product and the rate of claims that will be paid. 

 Things can be somewhat different from state to state tho in this business. My company conducts search and abstracts in NU among other states, we issue direct policies in many states and we support 15,000 title agents nationwide who issue policies for us.