Focal Points
Individual employment law
Works council and co-determination rights
Process guidance
Contract drafting and review
Alke Sundermann LL.M. (Münster) is an attorney at Littler in Hamburg. She advises in the fields of litigation, Works council and co-determination rights and the law of termination. Her wide-ranging professional and personal experience enables her to understand both the perspective of her clients and the interests of the opponent. With her mixture of empathy and assertiveness, she finds solutions that satisfy all parties involved.
Languages: German, English, French
Career
Certified Employment Law Specialist since, 2024
Legal Counsel at EDEKA VERBAND kaufmännischer Genossenschaften e.V. (employment law), 2022–2023
Associate at Eversheds Sutherland (employment law), 2020–2022
Previously, research associate at BCLP (employment law) and Addleshaw Goddard (employment law) and optional internship at British American Tobacco (HR/IR)
Education
LL.M. Master's degree in ›Labor Law‹ at JurGrad gGmbH, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 2023
Qualification as a specialist attorney for employment law (theoretical part), 2021
Legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig, 2017–2019
Subject-specific foreign language training for common law lawyers at WWU Münster (FFA) with internship at the Superior Court of Juvenile Justice in San Francisco, 2014
Semester abroad (ERASMUS) at the Université Paris X Nanterre, Paris, 2014
Law degree at the University of Münster, Germany (WWU), 2011–2016
Articles and entries
Blogpost
Fixed-Term Employment Without Objective Grounds for Up to Four Years? What the Proposed Reform Means for Employers
August 2026
- Johanna Kreienkamp
- Alke Helene Sundermann
In early July 2026, the coalition committee announced a significant expansion of fixed-term employment without objective grounds: employment relationships are to be permitted for up to 48 months without objective justification and may be extended up to six times; the proposal also contemplates a “renewed initial hiring by the same employer.” For employers, this would create greater flexibility. However, several issues remain unresolved, including the continued application of the prior-employment prohibition, the treatment of existing fixed-term arrangements, and the temporal scope of the new rules.
Blogpost
Medical Certificate from Day One: What Is Changing, What Remains the Same – and What Employers Should Do Now
July 2026
- Alke Helene Sundermann
- Johanna Kreienkamp
In early July 2026, the coalition committee of the CDU/CSU and SPD announced plans to bring forward the obligation to submit a certificate of incapacity for work from the first day of illness and to abolish telephone-based certification of incapacity for work. At first glance, this may sound like a significant tightening of obligations for employers and employees alike. In reality, however, less is likely to change than expected – the real challenges lie in the details, which will only be clarified once a draft bill is published.
Blogpost
Three weeks of vacation at a time? Employers may not impose blanket limits
May 2026
- Alke Helene Sundermann
In a decision dated March 2, 2026 (Case No. 4 Ta 15/26), the Thuringian Higher Labor Court overturned a common assumption in workplace practice: employers may not impose blanket rules limiting annual leave to two consecutive weeks. The ruling provides important clarification - not only on the substantive law governing vacation entitlements, but also on the enforceability of such claims in preliminary injunction proceedings.
Blogpost
Extraordinary termination due to off-duty conduct
July 2024
- Johanna Kreienkamp
- Alke Helene Sundermann
A strict distinction must always be made between private and business life. Off-duty conduct can therefore only justify dismissal within very narrow limits. Extraordinary dismissal for off-duty conduct can only be considered if there is a connection with the employment relationship. If there is no such connection, a breach of duty relevant to dismissal is generally ruled out.
Blogpost
Digitalization in recruitment: Works councils must also accept digital application documents in future
April 2024
- Alke Helene Sundermann
- Johanna Kreienkamp
From now on, works councils must also accept digital application documents in recruitment processes as long as they provide the same information content as traditional paper documents. This means that companies can digitize their recruitment processes as long as they ensure that the works council receives all the necessary information.