Abstract(S)‐4‐Oxopipecolic acid has been prepared in enantiomerically pure form from two readily accessible starting materials, (R)‐N‐(cyanomethyl)‐4‐phenyloxazolidine (2) and 2‐(methoxymethoxy)allyl chloride, (3, MOM‐allyl chloride). This strategy exploits the complementary electrophile/nucleophile reactivity at each end of this pair of 3‐atom unit building blocks. Thus, alkylation of the anion of 2 with 3 (creation of the piperidine C‐2−C‐3 bond) followed by Lewis acid induced cyclisation (creation of the C‐5−C‐6 bond), leads principally to a bicyclic intermediate 5 which incorporates a protected form of the title compound. Subsequent chemical transformations lead to the target molecule in an overall yield of 20% for the five‐step sequence. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2003)