People

Ulrike Schulke

Counsel

Certified Employment Law Specialist

Frankfurt/Main

Schulke

As counsel at Littler in Frankfurt, Ulrike Schulke works primarily in the areas of works constitution law, individual employment law and at the interface to social law. She is passionately committed to her clients, but avoids litigation wherever this is possible. Thanks to her balanced but also direct manner, she always finds an amicable solution for her clients. She only takes detours in her free time, when she is out discovering the countries of Europe in her VW bus.

Languages: German, English

Focal Points

  • Individual employment law

  • Restructuring

  • Social law

  • Works Council Constitution Law

  • Works council and co-determination rights

  • Dismissals/Terminations

Career

  • Attorney at Kliemt.Arbeitsrecht in Frankfurt a. M. until 2018

  • Certified Employment Law Specialist since 2018

  • Admitted to the bar as attorney, 2014

Education

  • Second state legal examination in Hesse, 2014

  • Legal traineeship at the Regional Court of Limburg a.d. Lahn with placements, i. a., in the area of personnel matters of a global German conglomerate

  • First state legal examination in the Free State of Thuringia, 2012

  • Studied law at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (Focus area »German and European employment and social law«), participation in the moot court of the Federal Labor Court

Ulrike Schulke is one of the »Best Lawyers in Germany« in the area of employment law

Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers, 2021–2023

Articles and entries

Blogpost

New Act in Germany: Payment of severance payments for employers made easier

March 2024

  • Ulrike Schulke
After some delays, the “Growth Opportunities Act” (“Wachstumschancengesetz”) cleared the final hurdle on 22 March 2024 and will come into force. It contains numerous tax changes for companies, including an important change to the taxation of severance payments. Unlike previously, employers will no longer have to apply the “one-fifth rule” when paying severance payments as of 2025.
Blogpost

Does the works council have a say when employees use ChatGPT? NO, according to the Labour Court Hamburg!

February 2024

  • Ulrike Schulke
  • Pia Scheer
Artificial intelligence (AI) makes working life easier. It is therefore not surprising that companies are keen to utilise the technical possibilities of AI, particularly by means of ChatGPT, to make work easier. However, this is accompanied by a large number of unresolved legal issues. From a labour law perspective, one of the questions is whether a works council has a say in the introduction of ChatGPT. In this context, we were able to obtain the first decision on this issue before the Labour Court Hamburg (decision dated 16 January 2024 - 24 BVGa 1/24).
Blogpost

Effective mass dismissal notice according to § 17 KSchG

August 2022

  • Ulrike Schulke
The BAG clarifies: A lack of target information pursuant to Sec. 17 (3) Sentence 5 KSchG does not lead to the invalidity of a mass dismissal notification by the employer to the Employment Agency.