to give 12-15 in acceptable yields (41-70%). Further investigations into the optical purity of the resultant amino acids by acylation with a-methoxy-a-trifluoro-methylphenylacetic acid revealed ~3% epimerization (for details, see the SI). We hypothesized that the boronic acid intermediate activates the carboxylate ester effectively rendering the a-proton prone to soft enolization. On the basis on this proposal, we opted to avoid the boronic acid intermediate, and we investigated complementary conditions described by Aggarwal and Baran. Because the photoredox reaction with B2Cat2 19 affords the boronic ester and the catechol ligand can easily be exchanged, we opted to use these conditions in the preparation of 12.