Inclusion Criteria:

• * Age ≥ 18 years of age.
• * Diagnosis of SLE according to current American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria.
• * Renal biopsy confirming the diagnosis of active class III/IV (± class V) LN (based on International Society of Nephrology/Renal Pathology Society (ISN/RPS) 2003) within 12 months of enrollment.
• * Proteinuria ≥ 500 mg over 24 hours.
• * eGFR ≥ 30 ml/min/SA.
• * Subjects should be able to give informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• * Pregnancy.
• * Hepatitis B or C, HIV
• * Anemia with Hgb \< 8.0 g/dL.
• * Thrombocytopenia with platelet count \< 100'000.
• * Any other disease, metabolic dysfunction, physical examination finding, or clinical laboratory finding giving reasonable suspicion of a disease or condition that contraindicates the use of an investigational drug or that may affect the interpretation of the results or render the patient at high risk from treatment complication.
• * Unable to provide consent.
• * Patients receiving \> 10 mg of oral prednisone or glucocorticoid equivalent if on corticosteroids for \> 2 weeks (patients would be allowed to be on \> 10 mg of prednisone or its oral equivalent as long as the duration is ≤ 2 weeks).
• * Patients who had received immunosuppressive therapy including cyclosporine, tacrolimus or azathioprine in the last 3 months.
• * Patients who have received cyclophosphamide in the last 6 months.
• * Patients who received rituximab previously with CD20 count of zero at the time of enrollment.
• * Patient are allowed to be on MMF at time of enrollment but no higher than total of 1500mg/day.
• * For women who are not postmenopausal (≥ 12 months of non-therapy-induced amenorrhea) or surgically sterile (absence of ovaries and/or uterus): agreement to remain abstinent or use two adequate methods of contraception, including at least one method with a failure rate of less than (\<) 1 percent (%) per year, during the treatment period and for at least 12 months after the last dose of study drug.
• * For men: agreement to remain abstinent or use a condom plus an additional contraceptive method that together result in a failure rate of \< 1% per year during the treatment period and for at least 12 months after the last dose of study drug and agreement to refrain from donating sperm during this same period.
• * Patients with diagnosis of glaucoma.