EntityHelper.ShallowCopy.cs

static class EntityHelper
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Makes a shallow copy of an entity object. This works much like a MemberwiseClone()
    /// but directly instantiates a new object and copies only properties that work with
    /// EF and don't have the NotMappedAttribute.
    ///
    /// ** It also avoids copying the EF's proxy reference that would occur by using MemberwiseClone() **
    ///
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The entity type.</typeparam>
    /// <param name="source">The source entity.</param>
    public static TEntity ShallowCopy<TEntity>(TEntity source) where TEntity : class, new()
    {
        // get the properties from the entity that are read/write and not marked with he NotMappedAttribute
        var notMappedType = typeof(System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema.NotMappedAttribute);
        var sourceProperties = typeof(TEntity)
                                .GetProperties()
                                .Where(p => p.CanRead && p.CanWrite && (p.GetCustomAttributes(notMappedType, true).Length == 0));

        // copy the properties into a new entity
        var newObj = new TEntity();
        foreach (var property in sourceProperties)
        {
            property.SetValue(newObj, property.GetValue(source, null), null);
        }

        return newObj;
    }

}

original code taken from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12315233/entityframework-entity-proxy-error

this is imperfect. when using this to copy/add a record you need to be aware that reference values will be copied. Relational ref values can goof the IDs in the copy (EF will revert them to the value of the relational reference's ID)