He has a career as Attorney for the National Treasury, as an acclaimed legal expert and professor and held the office of Attorney General for Brazil and Acting Minister of Justice and Public Security between February and March 2017, after the nomination of former minister Alexandre de Moraes to the Supreme Federal Court.

[1][2] He was also Attorney General for the National Treasury and is a licensed professor at the Law School of the University of São Paulo (USP).

He was special advisor of José Serra when he was Governor of São Paulo and commanded the juridical advisory of the Secretariat of Micro and Small Business of the Presidency of the Republic, under the administration of Guilherme Afif Domingos, in the government of Dilma Rousseff.

José Levi had been also Consultant General for the Union between June 2015 and May 2016,[4] before assuming a seat at the Ministry of Justice and Public Security as Executive Secretary, the "Number 2" of the office, from May 2016 to November 2017.

[8] Mello was confirmed by president Jair Bolsonaro as new Attorney General for Brazil, after André Luiz Mendonça was moved to the Minister of Justice and Public Security.