Planer chiral complexes emerge as powerful tools for enantioselective catalysis.

The decarbonylative coupling of phthalimides with aryl boronic acids provides ready access to a broad range of ortho-substituted benzamides. This nickelmediated methodology extends reactivity from previously described air-sensitive diorganozinc reagents of limited availability to easily handled and widely commercially available boronic acids. The decarbonylative coupling is tolerant of a broad range of functional groups and demonstrates little sensitivity to steric factors on either of the coupling partners.