A practical synthesis of 1 involving a catalytic enantioselective construction of the quaternary carbon from imine 10 (derived from 13 and 14) and alkyl iodide 5 using Maruoka’s chiral catalyst 11 is described. This asymmetric alkylation followed by hydrolysis to amino acid 9 was accomplished in good yield with high chemical purity (>98%) and chiral purity (>96% ee). The improved synthesis enabled production of 1 in seven chemical steps (six isolations) in an overall yield of 22%.