After graduating from the Ratsgymnasium in Hanover, he studied law at the Universities of Kiel, Munich, Göttingen and Lille.
He remained unaffected during the National Socialist period and after his return from captivity in 1948 he was appointed professor of civil and Roman law at the re-established University of Frankfurt am Main.
In 1984 Coing, who had already been inducted into the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts in 1973, was elected Chancellor of the Order.
A year later he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany.
In 2008, the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main awarded the Helmut Coing Prize for the first time.
The award is intended to give young researchers the opportunity to work at the institute for 4 to 5 months to complete a dissertation or post-doctoral thesis that deals with an area of European legal history.