An improved chemical synthesis of N-2((2S)-2-(3,5-difluorophenyl)-2-hydroxyethanoyl)-N1-((7S)-5-methyl-6-oxo-6,7-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[b,d]azepin-7-yl)-l-alaninamide (LY411,575, 9a), a known gamma-secretase inhibitor, is described. The key synthetic steps, which used no chiral chromatography in the entire sequence, involved (1) improved microwave-assisted synthesis of a seven-membered lactam (+/-)-(5,7-dihydro-6H-dibenz-[b,d]azepin-6-one 2, and (2) convenient isolation of pure LY411575 from a mixture of four diastereomers by simple flash silica gel chromatography. Starting from the resolved aminolactams 5a and 5b, all four diastereomers were produced in enantiomerically pure form.