X-ray methods have been used to determine the chain conformation and packing of the thermotropic liquid crystalline copolyester prepared from 50% tarephthaloyl chloride(TPA) and 50% (1-phenylethyl) hydroquinone(PEHQ). The x-ray patterns of annealed melt-spun fibers contain a series of annealed melt-Pointing to a well ordered crystalline structure, despite the random sense(2 or 3-) of the 1-phenylethyl substiuttion on the TPA-hydroquinone backbone. The crystalline fiber is monoclinic with space group P2l and the unit cell has dimensions 11=12.77 A, b=10.17 A (upique axis), c=12.58 h (fiber axis). and β=90.1° and contains TPA-PEHO units of to or chains. The random substitution of 1-phenylethyl groups was modelled by placing these groups at both the 2and 3 positions and giving each a weight of one-hal(. T he structure has been refined by linked a rom least square methods(LALS) against 16 observed and 21 unobserved reflections. and had a final R value of 0.20. Packing of the side chains is effected by staggering adjacent chains along the b axis by approximately c/2, so that the side chains are interleaved. The phenyl-COO and COO-phenyl torsion angles are -6.1 and 65.6, respectively, such that the main chain phenyls are mutually inclined at 59.5 (the ester groups are assumed to be planar). These torsion angles compare very well with those for the model compounds, notably phenylbenzoate, and can be used in future analyses of the structures of more complex random sequence copolyesters.