Somewhat related to the anecdote you’re skeptical of: I was a law clerk for multiple years for a presiding judge and if you were a wise attorney rule #1 was be kind to the administrative staff at the courthouse - judges would find out if you were rude and while no-one was ever unethical, in my opinion, arrogant attorneys were definitely grilled more than polite ones. Kindness gets you a long way. And if you were a jerk to my secretary I was definitely not putting in the extra effort to dig through the two-foot stack of motions we got everyday to fast track your motion to postpone to the presiding judge. It’s not my fault you filed it at the 11th hour.