The hydrodynamic and electrooptical properties of a polyelectrolyte complex based on a poly(L-lysinium) cation and a bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate anion in chloroform and isopropyl alcohol were studied. The molar fraction of polypeptide chain units involved in complexation with surfactant ions is equal to 76%. In chloroform and isopropyl alcohol, molecules of the complex are individual compounds which neither dissociate into separate components nor form intermolecular associates. The optical rotation spectra of solutions of the complex are characteristic of polypeptides whose molecules adopt the conformation of an α-helix. The comparison of hydrodynamic and electrooptical data collected for the complex and its covalent analog, poly(γ-benzyl -α,L-glutamate) with the same polymerization degree, shows that molecules of the complex take a rodlike conformation. It was demonstrated that a transition from a stoichiometric to nonstoichiometric composition of the complex, as well as a decrease in the diameter of a polar head of the surfactant and its removal from a polypeptide chain, significantly weakens the steric repulsion between suffactant ions responsible for the compaction of polypeptide-surfactant complex molecules in organic solvents.